Known wind turbines have a plurality of mechanical and electrical components. For example, a wind turbine generally includes a rotor that includes a rotatable hub assembly having multiple blades. The blades transform wind energy into a mechanical rotational torque that drives one or more generators via the rotor. The generators are sometimes, but not always, rotationally coupled to the rotor through a gearbox. The gearbox steps up the inherently low rotational speed of the rotor for the generator to efficiently convert the rotational mechanical energy to electrical energy, which is fed into a utility grid via at least one electrical connection. Such configurations may also include power converters that are used to convert a frequency of generated electric power to a frequency substantially similar to a utility grid frequency. Other electrical and/or mechanical components are also included in known wind turbine configurations.
Each electrical and/or mechanical component may have one or more parameters associated with the component that defines one or more operational characteristics of the component. The operational parameters are often set to default values or set points during installation or setup of the wind turbine. However, one or more irregularities may be present within one or more components such that the default values of one or more parameters may not be suitable or optimized for each wind turbine. Further, seasonal variations in environmental or atmospheric conditions in which the wind turbine operates may result in sub-optimal operation.
As such, it is known in the art to optimize wind turbine operation to account for such irregularities and seasonal variations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,987,067 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Optimizing Wind Turbine Operation” describes such a method and is incorporated by reference herein. More specifically, the system and method described in the '067 patent includes defining a plurality of test parameters that include a plurality of test points for at least one wind turbine operational parameter. Each test point includes a plurality of test values for the wind turbine operational parameter. The method also includes defining at least one test sequence of the plurality of test points and initiating a test that executes the plurality of test points within the at least one randomized test sequence and measures at least one operating condition of the at least one wind turbine at each test point.
Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art are constantly seeking to develop new and improved systems and methods for optimizing wind turbine operation. Thus, a system and method for robust optimization of a wind turbine that accounts for outliers in data points would be advantageous.